Thursday, June 18, 2015

When flat panel TVs appeared on the scene, the first thing that
anyone noticed was how thin and svelte they looked when compared to a TV tube
model. Then special features began to crop up —actually
they exploded —as enhancements to watching television changed. This brought
us apps like the TV was a mobile phone or tablet, streaming capabilities for
watching movies and TV shows when our schedule found it most convenient
(Without having to physically have a disc player) and even ways to emulate a
computer’s web browser for viewing things online. But to have all of
this work correctly, there also had to be an operating system (OS) that could
handle everything the TV was capable of doing efficiently and effectively. And
it was here that the flat panel was lacking, because the OS’seemed
to be cobbled together. Until now, because the Android TV operating system is designed to take
whatever the TV can throw at it and make it perform.

As built into the latest generation high-resolution TVs, Android
TV is an integral part of the TV and has cutting-edge features built in. These
features make it stand out and are worth knowing more about. So lets do just
that.

SMART TV

An Android TV knows that there’s more going on
than just watching broadcast television or cable. Because of this, it can
exercise a more precise control to deliver what the person watching the TV
wants to do or see. Take apps like YouTube or Hula Plus, for example.
Previously all you could do was access them and then search for what you wanted
to see. But now these apps will put up personalized recommendations for videos
or TV shows or sports right on the home screen because they’re
working for you.

THINK IT, THEN SAY IT

Scrolling through menus is a chore and entering words or phrases
for searches or to get information can make you tear your hair out. Rather than
waste precious time, just speak into the remote’s microphone and
tell it what you’re looking for: comedies set in New
York, for example or asking what the forecast is for later in the week —sure,
you can do that now. There’s nothing like using your voice to
streamline what you are looking for and thanks to this OS, your Android TV will show you everything relating to
what you have commanded because it gives you the power of Google Search.

CONTENT COMES FROM WHERE YOU WANT IT

We all have a lot of devices and lots of things on them that could
benefit from the big TV screen. No wires to connect or complicated setup
programs to follow, if you want to “cast”music
or a show or a movie or games you’re playing to the TV, go ahead and do
it. Got a Mac or PC? Go ahead. How about iOS (Apple) or Android phones or
tablets? Sure. Chromebooks aren’t left out either. And in those cases
where a device like Chromecast might be needed to make it happen for some
devices, well it doesn’t hurt if that’s built right into
the TV (actually the Google Cast technology that Chromecast is composed of).

HAVE FUN, WILL PLAY

Android TV includes access to Google Play and that means tons of
games. But that also means you can start playing a game on your phone and then
continue it on the TV if you want, because Google Play Games saves progress
onyour Android phone, tablet and TV. Or
start up a multi-player game and grab some friends (up to 4) and pass out
gamepads, Android phones/tablets so you can get into some serous head-to-head
gaming. Plus you can play PlayStation 3 games directly on some Android TVs too (no console needed). And the
high-res graphics will look splendid on the big screen TV for sure.

One of the important things to remember is that Android TV is an interface and so will be
found on more and more TVs moving forward. But we think the important thing to
remember is that Android TV makes watching TV more fun.